Collecting five (The Borden Tragedy, The Mystery of Mary Rogers, The Saga of the Bloody Benders, The Case of Madeleine Smith, The Murder of Abraham Lincoln) previously published volumes of Geary’s work, this compendium is a must have.
“The high quality that writer/artist Geary has maintained for his “Treasury of Victorian Murder” true crime series since its 1987 inception is easy to take for granted…Highly recommended for mature readers of graphic novels, mysteries history, and true crime; violent and disturbing content.”
“It’s a densely crafted volume showing Geary’s dedication to detail and his own sense of investigation into true stories of the strange and macabre. This is exactly the kind of book to cozy up to as winter sets in.”
“Geary meticulously researches each murder, and presents all the evidence to the reader in as objective a fashion as he can, in a faux-woodcut style that really could pass for the kind of illustrative artwork that preceded photography — if it wasn’t so much better. For one thing, there wasn’t much irony in those days, and Geary is forever arching an eyebrow artistically at the deadpan captions. All of which serves the narrative, which is invariably gripping.”
“Each of these stories, although set long ago, involves elements we can identify with, whether the spreading of rumors or sensationalized journalism or the question of how much to trust our neighbors or the ruinous dedication of political groups to lost causes. ”
“All the stories are fascinating studies of human behavior in general, and of the peculiarities of Victorian life in particular.”